CHOC ORANGE SPELT BUNS

You can use wholewheat flour instead of spelt flour for these buns, if you prefer, but the spelt flour gives a lighter texture. These are a great snack: low in sugar but sweet because of the orange. This recipe makes 12 small, tasty, low GI buns.

Preheat oven to 180˚C

INGREDIENTS

250g (9oz) wholegrain spelt flour
25g (1oz) light muscovado sugar
2 tsps baking powder
1 tblsp of cocoa powder
1 tsp mixed spice
zest of 1 large orange
juice of 1 large orange
50ml soya milk
1 beaten egg (OR 1tsp NoEgg mixed with 2tblsps water)
2 tblsps vegetable oil
12 muffin or bun cases

METHOD

• Put muffin cases into bun tray
• Sieve the flour, spice, cocoa, sugar and baking powder into a bowl
• Zest and squeeze the orange
• If using, make up the NoEgg as per pack
• In a jug, mix together the soya milk, oil, orange juice and egg mixture
• Make a well in the flour and beat in the milky mixture
• Mix in the orange zest
• Divide the mixture between the muffin cases
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes

OPTIONAL ICING
We decorated ours with about 10 squares of dark chocolate, melted, with one teaspoon of icing sugar mixed in. Also jelly beans!

My chocolate splattered helper :)

Fundraising vegetarian cookery class

On Saturday 28th July Liz Nolan of WholeFoodMatters is running a special fundraising vegetarian cookery class in Galway.

This class is in aid of Lily Mae Morrison, the 4 year old daughter of dancers Judith Sibley and Leighton Morrison. Lily-Mae has been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer. Class will run from 10am 'til 1pm. More details in ‘classes’ section of Liz's site. If you’d like to attend the class please ring or text Liz on 086 8099604. Cost is €50 and all proceeds will go to the Lily- Mae trust.

CANNELLINI BEAN BURGERS

Cannellini Bean Burgers

Two of the kids have their party today, so there will be a few adults present too, including my sister. We always seem to serve the same food when she is here so today I decided to try something from Liz Nolan's beautiful book My Goodness. I've adapted her mung bean burger recipe, which she in turn adapted from one by Madhur Jaffrey.

The mixture

My mixture was loose (I gather it's meant to be) but I found that made it hard for turning the frying burgers so I added two small handfuls of wholegrain spelt flour to thicken the mix.

Makes 12 burgers

RECIPE

254g tin of cannellini beans, drained
2 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped small
2 tsp mixed herbs (use 1 tsp if you don't want a very herby taste)
1 crushed Oxo veg stock cube
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium courgette, grated
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 small handfuls wholegrain spelt flour
rapeseed oil for frying

METHOD

Using a hand blender, blend the cannellini beans, garlic, onion, herbs, stock cube, salt and olive oil until smooth
Grate the carrot and courgette into a large bowl
Add the sesame seeds and cannellini bean mixture and mix well
Heat oil in frying pan, when hot, use a tablespoon to drop a blob of the mixture, pat it down with the spoon
Cook on medium heat for 4 mins then carefully turn it over and cook the other side for a further 4 minutes
The burgers should look golden brown.
Serve on a wholemeal bun with salad and hummus. Yum! I just hope my sister approves :)

The burgers frying

MY GOODNESS - LIZ NOLAN

 
Life is very busy at the moment (new book out in June) so I am not able to post here as much as I'd like. I just want to quickly bring your attention to a fabulous new cook book from Galway-based cook and nutritionisit, Liz Nolan.

The book is called My Goodness and I went to the launch recently where I sampled some tasty treats from the recipes. Beautiful salads, pesto, hummus, dark choc truffles etc etc. I can't wait to start to try them myself. In the meantime, Liz runs veggie cookery classes and her website Wholefood Matters is here.

LEMON DRIZZLE LOAF

I love lemon drizzle cake and this recipe is adapted by one from How to Be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella's wonderful book. I always adapt recipes to reduce the amount of sugar. Most recipes have far too much IMO and that results in super sweetness. I love sweet things but don't want to feel icky after eating cake. I also substitute some or all of the flour with spelt flour. I like spelt's denseness but didn't want this cake to be too dense either. Anyway, it turned out gorgeous: properly lemony, nice and sweet, and sticky on top. In fact, it is calling to me from the tin: Eat more of me!

Ingredients

125g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour

75g spelt flour
125g butter

pinch of salt
zest of 1 large lemon

2 eggs

4 tblsps cow's or soya milk

Drizzle

75g icing sugar
juice of 1 large lemon (4 tblsps)

·        Preheat oven to 180˚C

·        Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin

·        Cream the butter and caster sugar

·        Add the eggs and zest and beat well

·        Add flour and salt and fold in completely

·        Mix through the milk

·        Pour into the cake tin

·        Make the syrup while the cake is cooking by gently heating the lemon and icing sugar until the sugar is melted

·        Bake for 45 minutes or so, until golden on top, make sure it is cooked through with a cake tester/skewer

·        Using your skewer, puncture the top of the cake and pour the syrup evenly over the cake

·        Cool completely in the tin before turning out

GALWAY FOOD FESTIVAL

The Galway Food Festival takes place the Easter weekend. They have a great blog here featuring some of my favourite spots like Kai and Griffin's Bakery. Worth a look!

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY BUNS

The finished buns

Juno and Finn decorating

Ahead of St Patrick's Day tomorrow (Happy Paddy's Day!) we made some lovely buns. This recipe is adapted from one of Nigella's.

Ingredients

125g caster sugar
125g self-raising flour
125g marg, melted a little (softened)
½ tsp vanilla essence (I used one vial of my Lidl Belbake Butter & Vanilla flavouring)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tblsp cow's or soya milk

Topping

1 large bar dark choc, melted

2 tsps of icing sugar, to thicken

green and orange jelly beans

Method

Preheat oven to 200˚C
Line a 12-space bun tin (my mix made 16 buns)
Throw all the ingredients into a bowl, except the milk; beat well with a wooden spoon
Add the milk slowly and beat in gently
Plop the (quite runny) mixture into the bun cases using two spoons
Bake for 18 minutes or so, until golden on top
Cool on a wire rack
Break the choc into squares, put in a large bowl over a small pot of hot water
When the choc melts, add 2 teasponns of icing sugar and mix through
Splodge onto the buns with a spatula, stick on the jelly beans and, voilá, Irish buns!